For those of you that have been following both the Lonely Grape blog and now the Taste McLaren Vale blog will probably know the name Inkwell. I have been following Inkwell and more importantly the owner – Dudley Brown, for as long as I have been back in the Vale. I have always thought it was “interesting” that an American from California has a vineyard in McLaren Vale! The other thing that draws me in is Dudley’s passion towards the wine industry in general and McLaren Vale in particular.
The other item I enjoy with Dudley is the Inkell wines. I have enjoyed his Shiraz since my exposure to the 2008 Shiraz. I also like the journey regarding the Zinfandel from his vineyard. Each vintage that produced a wine so different from the previous. To me showing not only the normal vintage variation but also the understanding of the vineyard.
Anyway I should discuss the wine in question. The bottle I had was a Cleanskin so I do not have a bottle shot, however I have shown the inspiration for the label – the inkwell ink dot!

Inkwell Label
2010 Inkwell Shiraz ($30)
The first thing one notices is the colour or more correct the colour density. This wine is almost inky in concentration. So dense in fact that the wine needed more than 2 hours to show it’s best? Also showing me this wine will have a long life, but I am not sure there will be much of it left in 7 years time.
The aromas continued with the dark theme with dark fruit compote with an emphasis on cherries. I know there was oak maturation in making this wine but none of that could be really seen on the nose. Maybe the wine was so dense that it was not ready to give up the oak aromas. The flavors were – yes you guessed it, dark. There was fresh blackberry mixed with a bit of satsuma plums. This time one does get some oak structure – mainly French oak character. The wine finishes with drying tannins mixed with a hint of violets. The wine is not shy in the alcohol stakes but one does not notice because of all the complexity and the bigness of the fruit just pulls it all off. In this case the individual components are no way even close to the effect of the whole. This wine has just so much going on. If I was so encore this wine it would be very high This wine needs food with flavor – lots and last of flavor. I enjoyed this wine with a big, big steak and it was just so good.
My understanding there is not much of this wine so if you like big bold Shiraz than this is a wine you should find and put down for at least a couple of years.